Birmingham City 2 Liverpool 2

Benitez calls for inquiry into leaks

Four goals - one a penalty, one an own goal - a sending-off, a couple of goal-line clearances and a horrendous miss by Peter Crouch, all crammed into the final, breathtaking 22 minutes. Is that enough? Too much, apparently, for Rafael Benitez, who announced an immediate inquiry into how his side, having gone 455 minutes without conceding a goal in the Premiership, managed to let in two in three minutes. "We need to analyse why that happened," he said, gravely.

It was all the more galling for the Liverpool manager in the light of what had happened five minutes before Stephen Warnock's own goal let Birmingham back into the game, to be followed swiftly by Walter Pandiani bundling in their second after a fumble by the goalkeeper, Jose Reina.

Then the visiting bench were celebrating. As mean as they have been defensively, Liverpool have been grimly unproductive as an attacking force, so the substitute Luis Garcia's fine strike - only their second League goal of the season and the first in 404 minutes - was worth shouting about. And apart from Steven Gerrard fiercely hitting a post in the first half, there had been little sign of it coming.

Had all then gone according to plan, nothing much else would have happened. Having largely controlled the match, albeit without raising anyone's pulse rate as Crouch toiled alone up front with only fleeting midfield support, Benitez would have had few thoughts beyond closing out. "We had done the difficult thing, scoring a goal," he lamented.

Liverpool unexpectedly revealed frailties. As Julian Gray crossed from the right, Reina prepared to make a routine catch when Warnock, leaping with Mikael Forssell, deflected the ball past him. Then Reina spilled an Emile Heskey header and scrambled in vain to retrieve it as Pandiani pounced. It was quite an afternoon for substitutes. Garcia had been on the field only eight minutes when he scored, Pandiani barely three.

Now Birmingham believed the points were theirs. But if Liverpool could not protect a lead, it was probably asking a lot of Steve Bruce's team to do so. Garcia spurred Liverpool, who had spent so much time worrying obsessively about their shape, into an entirely different approach, and that lifted the game from its torpor.

Garcia twice almost scored. With five minutes left, from Gerrard's free-kick on the right Jamie Carragher headed against the underside of the bar, thinking he had equalised. No goal was given but a penalty was, Neil Kilkenny scooping the ball away with his hand and being sent off on debut.

Bruce disputed the free-kick, with justification, but should be grateful not to have lost. Djibril Cissé, another substitute, scored the penalty and then supplied a cross that begged Crouch to head the winner. To the relief of the home crowd after three consecutive home defeats, the tallest man on the field somehow put the ball over the bar.